Isherwood geared up for Heathens debut (From Stourbridge News)

Isherwood geared up for Heathens debut

8:48am Thursday 21st March 2013 in Sport

GARETH Isherwood makes his Heathens debut at Coventry this Friday looking to kickstart his career.

Isherwood is one of five new boys with the former Cradley club — Paul Starke, Lewis Blackbird, Nathan Greaves and Max Clegg, who will make their bow in the Travel Plus Trophy (8pm).

And the Manchester-based rider sees his move to the Heathens as the perfect chance to reignite a so far frustrating career.

He said: “I’m really looking forward to it.

“I’ve joined a good, big club and I just want a full season to be honest.

“It’s been a tough couple of years for me, but this is a great opportunity to kick start my career again.

“In 2011 I broke my back, in 2012 I spent most of the year trying to get fit again then I managed to get a few meetings at the end of the season which went well.

“But now I want to get back into it and get a good, full year under my belt.”

Isherwood met up with his Heathens team-mates at the clubs’ Meet the Riders event at the beginning of March, before attending a team-building day thanks to Heathens sponsors Recycled Aggregate Services 24 hours later.

After getting to know his colleagues plus meeting up with supporters he is certain he has joined a good club.

And he has also revealed that he already has one eye on the National League title.

Isherwood said: “Everybody at the club seems great. The fans are all really enthusiastic about the sport and it’s a really well-run, professional setup so it’s great to be a part of it.

“I think we’ve got a good team. It seems like we’ve got a good bunch of lads, and I’m sure we’ll be able to build up some team spirit pretty quickly.”

“I think there’s a good mix of experienced riders and youngsters. Ash is the captain but I think with the lads we’ve got we’ll all act like captains. We’ll all pass onto each other what we can and try to help each other out to make sure the team can do as well as possible.

“A few of us are at the ages now where it’s kind of make or break, so we need to do the business.”

“It’s going to be down to us more experienced guys to get the job done and take the pressure off some of the younger lads.”

“We’re aiming for a National League title and I think we can do it. We definitely have a team good enough to make the top four, and once you get in the play-offs anything can happen.

“The fans seem great at Dudley, and if we can give them the league title at the end of the season it would be great.”